Västervik Municipality

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This page deals with both Västervik Municipality and the urban area (tätort) Västervik

**Västervik Municipality (*Kommun*)**
Västervik in northern Kalmar County Map outlining the municipalities of Sweden	Coat of arms
	Municipal facts
	Seat	Västervik
	57° 46´ N 16° 39´ E
	County	Kalmar County
	Province	Småland
	Area Rank	1,881 km² 45th of 290
	Population Rank (2005)	36,555 x of 290
	Population density	19/km²

Västervik Municipality is a municipality in Kalmar County, in south-eastern Sweden, with its seat in the town of Västervik with 20,000 inhabitants.

The town is located by the water and has historically been well suited for harbour industry, and has a popular archipelago.

1 History
2 Today
3 Natives
4 External links
5 Other uses

[edit] History

Västervik was first mentioned in 1275. The town was then located at the current location of Gamleby. In 1433 Eric of Pomerania decided to give it a charter and move it to its current strategically important location, close to the castle of Stegeholm. In the ensuing centuries Västervik suffered attacks from hostile armies. It was more or less completely destroyed five times between 1450 and 1677. Despite this, king Gustav Vasa established a ship industry here in the 16th century, from which ships sailed to Germany and the Baltic countries, and from the 17th century they sailed to Portugal too.

In the 18th century a long period of peace allowed the ship industry to expand, increasing the ship routes down to the Mediterranean Sea.

Västervik in Suecia Antiqua et Hodierna

Västervik around 1900

[edit] Today

Every year since 1966 there is a ballad festival in Västervik, at the ruins of the Stegeholm castle. The city still bases much of its industry on factory on its harbour, and on the industries that were established as a result of it in the late 19th century.

Recently, however, Västervik has suffered the closure of certain factories, notably Electrolux, with associated job losses.

Being a summer town popular with yachtspeople, campers, daytrippers, and returning former residents, Västervik expericences an annual revival in July.

At Västervik, there is the static inverter of HVDC Gotland and Fårhultsmasten, a 335 metre tall guyed mast used for FM/TV-transmission, which shares with three other masts the title of Sweden's tallest structure.